Precision | Page 422 | News and reviews from the precision agriculture industry

Attendance Up at 2014 Mid-South Farm & Gin Show

Jamie JohansenMarch 12, 2014Ag Group, Audio, Cotton

Attendance was up at this year’s Mid-South Farm & Gin Show. Tim Price, Executive Director of the Southern Cotton Ginners Association and Mid-South Farm & Gin Show Manager summed up the event with Chuck. He’s proud that farmers make plans to attend the show each year and make it a family affair.

“We don’t have the exact number yet, but we were ahead of last year. We think we will come in somewhere around 18,000 folks who have visited the show over the two-day time period. We always compete with the end of winter and the beginning of the planting season. Here in the south there are people fertilizing winter wheat now. They are anxious after this long winter to get out in the fields and begin tillage and a number of them have. But we find that they carve out time for this.”

Tim gives credit of the record attendance to good marketing and unprecedented years of profitability in American agriculture. He stated that even when the economy is down, people still come out to the show. They are seeking ideas to increase profits and ways to change in order to keep up with technology.

“This region of the country has the assets and the climate to really grow multiple crops. That’s an advantage. In my work representing the cotton ginning sector in the Mid-South, we love to see acreage, we love to see cotton production, we love to see cotton gins. But it’s not economically in the farmers best interest some years. What we have learned is that they are learning constantly how to adjust and adapt to what has really been a decade old process of going toward a market orientation and then an international orientation of our production.”

You can listen to Chuck’s interview with Tim here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/farm-gin-show/gin-show-14-price-wrap-up.mp3″ text=”Interview with Tim Price”]

2014 Mid-South Farm & Gin Show Photo Album

New Holland Auto Command Transmission Lesson

Chuck ZimmermanMarch 11, 2014Agribusiness, Equipment, New Holland, Tractor, Video

My first lesson during the New Holland Operation Blue Force field training event I attended last week in California focused on the New Holland Auto Command CVT transmission. Before I got into a tractor in the field I got a lesson from Nick Graham.

The Auto Command™ Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) makes it easy to find the perfect speed for each job because your choice of speeds is infinite. You accelerate from zero to maximum speed smoothly, without multiple steps. And, with no clutching, the shuttle shifting is the smoothest you’ll find, making the Auto Command transmission ideal for loader work.

After class I got into a T7 210 tractor. My teacher was Luke Zerby. He says this tractor is perfect for hay and forage work. Luke talked me through the control stick which is mounted on a Sidewinder II comfy armrest. The controls allow you to preset three different speeds to switch between easily. There is also an Integrated Control Panel which allows for even more pre-set options and finer tuning those settings. This allows you to maximize engine efficiency.

Go to class with Nick in this video:

Or just listen to Nick here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/new-holland/nh-blue-force-14-graham.mp3″ text=”Nick Graham Lesson”]

Ride along with me via ZimmGlass (my Google Glass) to learn more about what this feature offers:

Open Ag Data Alliance Launched

Cindy ZimmermanMarch 11, 2014Audio, Case IH, Data Collection, Growmark, New Holland, technology

The Climate Corporation and several agricultural stakeholders today officially launched the Open Ag Data Alliance (OADA), an open standards software project to ensure farmers have full data access, security and privacy.

“OADA will work to ensure farmers can move their data seamlessly and securely between their equipment, software and services by speeding the development of technical standards for data formatting and interoperability that will be openly developed, and shared,” said David Friedberg, CEO of The Climate Corporation, who announced the company’s intent to support the formation of the OADA earlier this year.

Aaron Ault, a senior research engineer for the Open Ag Technology Group at Purdue and a farmer himself, will serve as project lead for OADA. “As a farmer, I need the freedom to select the right hardware, software and services for my operation,” said Ault. “The open standards of OADA will give farmers the flexibility and control they need to choose data science products and services that will work on their farms to help manage their data and make more data-driven decisions, enabling the next wave of agricultural production.”

Companies joining with The Climate Corporation in making the announcement included: CNH Industrial – Case IH/New Holland; GROWMARK cooperative; Valley Irrigation; Wilbur-Ellis Company; and WinField.

Listen to the conference call announcement here: [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/precision/oada-announcement.mp3″ text=”Open Ag Data Alliance announcement”]

FarmLink Offers TrueHarvest Benchmarking Tool

Cindy ZimmermanMarch 11, 2014agronomy, Audio, technology

A new benchmarking tool has been developed by FarmLink that can help farmers get the fullest potential from their operations.

“We’re helping a farmer identify where he should go find yield in a cost effective manner and other areas where he’s doing great,” says company president Scott Robinson about the tool they call TrueHarvest, which uses objective data to show a farm’s full range of performance potential, drilled down to a 150-square-foot area called a micro-field.

“The reason they’re 150 square feet is because our combine collection is done on a fleet of about 200 combines, the combine cutting head is about 30 feet wide, travels about 3.5 miles an hour and we collect data every second,” he said. “That data is used to correlate across the other 67 billion micro fields that we’ve developed across the United States that represents all corn, wheat and soybeans.”

According to TrueHarvest calculations, American farmers could have produced approximately 1.6 billion more bushels of corn and 250 million more bushels of soybeans in 2013, realizing approximately $11 billion in additional revenue. “If farmers increased their performance up to the 75th percentile on average for corn and soybeans, that’s how much money is on the table,” said Robinson.

FarmLink was at the recent Commodity Classic talking about TrueHarvest and getting good reception from farmers according to Robinson, who said they really appreciated that the service was independent and did not require them to provide the company with private data. “It’s really agronomic benchmarking that we’re doing, but it’s for the individual farmer,” he said.

Find out more in this interview with Robinson and in the video below from the MyTrueHarvest.com website. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/machinerylink/farmlink-scott.mp3″ text=”Interview with Scott Robinson, FarmLink”]

New Soil Health Toolbox Evaluates Plant Nutrients

Jamie JohansenMarch 10, 2014Agribusiness, Soil, Soil Sampling

Now, labs can test soil health more accurately with a new Soil Health Nutrient Toolbox from Woods End Laboratories in Mt. Vernon, Maine.

“Years of research have led to this new way of testing soil,” Woods End Founder William Brinton, Ph.D., said. “Now, three labs are offering the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Health Nutrient Toolbox, and we hope to expand this worldwide, with the number of labs offering the test covering every region throughout the country.”

According to Luke Baker, Ph.D., an agronomist and laboratory specialist at Brookside Laboratories, Inc., “We are very excited to offer this Soil Health Nutrient Toolbox since soil testing methods have been missing the biological component.With this tool, we can include soil biology when estimating plant available nutrients. After analyzing hundreds of samples, we feel that this could be the missing link in soil plant nutrient analysis.”

During 2013 and early 2014, the new soil test was rolled out in meetings with growers and consultants, with a very positive response. But the idea of a “Soil Health Nutrient Toolbox” has really been under development by several scientists since early 2000, paralleling the huge increase of farmers using cover crops to build soils.

In fact, Dr. Brinton and Richard L. Haney, Ph.D., a soil scientist with USDA Agricultural Research Services (ARS) in Texas, collaborated extensively to standardize a cost-effective soil biology test adaptable to commercial labs. The basis for this was the Woods End Solvita® test, which measures microbial CO2-respiration in a simple, pre-calibrated procedure. Then, the USDA-ARS expanded it to include “green chemistry” as a new way of measuring soil nutrients in order to address farmer fertilizer issues. The resulting package is considered the next step for soil labs performing routine testing.

The kit is currently available at three American labs: Woods End, Brookside (New Bremen, Ohio) and Ward Labs (Kearney, Neb.). Woods End is looking to expand the availability of the Toolbox. Therefore, growers are encouraged to ask their labs to incorporate this test into their overall continuum. Many labs in the U.S. have already adopted the Solvita test for soil biology, including those at Rutgers University and University of Maine.

Canada Crop Protection eConnectivity Project

Jamie JohansenMarch 10, 2014General

Companies working on AgGateway’s Crop Protection Canada Connectivity (CPCC) Project held their first working meeting in Winnipeg, Manitoba, last month, and have begun the first steps toward streamlining the crop protection supply chain in Canada, increasing efficiencies and reducing the cost of doing business among agri-businesses.

The collaborative eBusiness project expands on a proven approach already in use in the U.S. crop protection industry – thanks to previous collaborative work by AgGateway companies.

“We completed a very successful launch meeting, with 24 representatives from 11 companies,” said Greg Knox, Crop Protection Coordinator with Richardson International Limited. “As a channel partner, I’m excited to be involved to help move this industry forward electronically. I have no doubt that this will boost the efficiency and accuracy of the procurement process for trading partners in Canada.”

The companies currently involved in the CPCC Project are BASF Canada, Bayer CropScience, Crop Production Services (CPS), Dow AgroSciences Canada Inc., E.I. DuPont Canada Company, FMC of Canada, Monsanto Canada, Inc., Richardson International Limited, Syngenta Canada Inc., United Farmers of Alberta (UFA), and Univar Canada Ltd.

The team plans to have the first steps in the project completed by May. This includes reviewing the standards and determining further requirements for electronically transmitting order-to-invoice information. Starting in June, the team will focus on developing the elements needed for companies to go live with transactions with their trading partners by the end of 2015.

“This is the first AgGateway project focused entirely on Canadian businesses,” said AgGateway CEO Rod Conner. “Clearly the benefits achieved by the eConnectivity project in the U.S. for ordering, shipping, invoicing and sales reporting are evident to businesses in Canada, and they’re taking steps to get connected. We’re seeing similar interest and activity in Europe.”

Companies doing crop protection business in Canada are still welcome to join if they would like to influence and be a part of determining the requirements, and also to facilitate their ability to connect electronically with other companies in the project. For information contact the CPCC Project Coordinator, Marilyn Hunter, at marilyn.hunter@AgGateway.org.

2014 Bayer Sustainability Award

Cindy ZimmermanMarch 10, 2014Audio, Bayer CropScience, Farmers, sustainability

Bayer CropScience has honored Bryan Boll of Minnesota as the 2014 Bayer Young Farmer Sustainability Award winner.

“Sustainability means so many different things to people,” said Boll, adding that he looked it up in the dictionary and found that “It basically means to continue on forever without interruption.” That’s what he works toward on his 5,000 acre diversified farming operation. “That includes profitability, environmental sensitivity, community involvement, community awareness … there’s a lot of things that go into sustainability.” [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/bayer/bayer-aif14-boll.mp3″ text=”Interview with Bryan Boll, Bayer 2014 sustainability award winner”]

Bryan is the fourth recipient of this award. Pictured with him here are 2013 winner Jeremy Jack of Mississippi on the left, and the CEO and president of Bayer CropScience LP, Jim Blome.

Jack, who also participated on a panel during the Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum on how today’s farmer CEO are re-shaping modern agriculture, says he believes “sustainability has got to be the action plan” for every farmer in the future. [wpaudio url=”http://zimmcomm.biz/bayer/bayer-aif14-jack.mp3″ text=”Interview with Jeremy Jack, Bayer 2013 sustainability award winner”]

2014 Bayer CropScience Ag Issues Forum Photos

What’s New in 5.2?

Melissa SandfortMarch 7, 2014Ag Leader, Insights Weekly

This February, Ag Leader released the latest firmware of 5.2. There are a lot of updates and improvements in the latest firmware and no matter your operation, there will be a feature you will enjoy! The first thing that you will notice about 5.2 is the home screen has changed. It has a green backdrop, but that is just the beginning! There are added tabs that make adjusting the operation more convenient. Growers can now change operators, configurations, fields, products, and rates, straight from the home screen. Also, you can access the grower/farm/field and configuration settings by selecting the wrench next to the tabs.

Also in the new 5.2 firmware is “Events”. This mode is most convenient for custom applicators that do not want to log data to a specific field. Event mode allows data logging without being tied to a specific grower, farm, or field. This mode will allow operators to load the run screen with fewer button presses.

Another new optional feature that was added is headlands. Growers can use this to make AutoSwath work in different portions of the field. This option can help operators keep their field mapped more accurately and cut back on overlap.

Another new feature is managing guidance patterns. In the new 5.2 firmware growers have the ability to group guidance patterns together. This feature allows you to move from adaptive curve, identical curve, straight path, or pivot guidance lines without having to load the new guidance line into the display. This function will be most convenient for growers that use multiple lines in one field.

Ag Leader recommends upgrading to 5.2 before spring, as well as making a backup of the display before the season starts. We wish you a safe and successful planting season and enjoy the 5.2 firmware!

Become a fan of Ag Leader on Facebook today, and get the latest precision ag videos on the YouTube channel. For more information about Ag Leader products and services, or to visit the blog site, go to www.agleader.com.

Researchers Look to Take Precision Ag to Next Level

John DavisMarch 7, 2014Research, University

Computerized sensors, automatic sprayers, and even one day, driverless, GPS-guided tractors might seem pretty realistic in the world of precision agriculture. But a researcher in Texas is looking to take the technology to the next level. In this article from Texas A&M, Dr. Alex Thomasson, an agricultural engineer for the school, says he wants to develop sensors and computer hardware and software that can evaluate the status of individual plants in real time, as the tractor moves across a field automatically.

Thomasson is currently working on a system that will be able to aid plant breeders in sorting through the thousands or even tens of thousands of plants for the development of new varieties.

[One of Thomasson’s partners in the venture, Dr. Bill Rooney] and other breeders have been working on new varieties for years. Whether produced by conventional plant crosses or genetic manipulation, the first selections of any breeding program rely a great deal upon observable characteristics of individual plants – what’s called “phenotyping.”

“A major limitation in the genetic improvement of energy crops is the collection of large, good quality phenotypic data,” Thomasson said. “Traditional plant phenotypic measurements rely on humans, and are slow, expensive and subjective.”

Eventually the group wants to develop sorghum for energy production that has good yields, tolerates drought, and uses nitrogen efficiently. To get there, they are developing a variety of sensors to include:

Down-looking six-band, multi-spectral camera.
Down-looking thermal imaging camera.
Light curtain.
Side-looking camera.
Ultrasonic sensor.

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